Union park to be named for Pearl Harbor survivor Tom Mahoney

UNION — A survivor of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor who was recently decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal will have a new park in Union named in his honor.

Several U.S. Military officers were on hand, along with Mayor Clifton People and Township Committees members for Tom Mahoney's medal ceremony held during part of the committee meeting on Feb. 11.

Now in his 90s, Mahoney was a sailor who fought in 16 Naval battles in the Pacific during World War II. He was honored a second time the same evening when an artist's rendering depicting a new one-acre park at the corner Chestnut Street and Globe Avenue was unveiled.

“It will be called Thomas Mahoney Union Military Park, and it will honor the five branches of the service, the men and women who served their country and who have lived in Union,” Ronald Manzella, the Union Township administrator, said by phone on Feb. 21.

The park project is a joint partnership between Union Township and the Veterans Alliance of Union, which is a type umbrella organization consisting of several other veterans groups.

“We're going to do some of the work in-house and some through donations,” Manzella said.

To help fund the park project, he said, memorial bricks can be purchased honoring men and women who served in the military.

Mayor People, also speaking by phone on Feb. 21, said he was part of the discussions held last year with the Veterans Alliance to name the park after someone “who committed themselves to the patriotism of the country. We came up with Tom as being that person, and we came up with the idea that the park should be named after him in some way.”

Mahoney enlisted in the Navy at age 18, and both he and his brother Harold were serving on the Seaplane tender USS Curtiss when Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. Even though the Curtiss was severely damaged, they were not injured.

Following the attack, Mahoney was assigned to a new destroyer, the USS O'Bannon, and ended up fighting in 16 battles in the Pacific. Except for one 10-day leave, Mahoney served in the Pacific for the entire war.

Deputy Mayor Manuel Figueiredo was also part of the park-naming process, Manzella said.

Permits have been received from Somerset Union Soil Conservation District officials, Manzella said, and what now is just a vacant lot will hopefully be finished and turned into a completed Thomas Mahoney Union Military Park by Memorial Day and be dedicated on Veterans Day.